Lieutenant Condren assumed command of the Company when Captain Wolf left to become divisional billeting officer on January 13, inaugurating his reign by confining all members of the Company to camp and advancing the hour of reveille forty-five minutes because of the disappearance of two cans of milk from the kitchen. The mystery of the milk remained unsolved, however, and five days later the regular schedule of calls was resumed. All during the following month Sundays were taken up with drills or fatigue work, not to mention the endless inspections which make the lives of all soldiers miserable.
Major Howard, in command of the Battalion during all this time, graced the company with visits only on two occasions. Orders were received from the headquarters of the 101st Machine Gun Battalion, but it soon became evident that the identity of Company A was to be changed, for orders were issued causing that organization to be placed under the command of the major of the 102d Machine Gun Battalion for "instruction and training." These orders were never rescinded and in due time D Company of the 102d Machine Gun Battalion was designated as a permanent title and A Company of the 101st Machine Gun Battalion passed into oblivion, along with Troop A, Connecticut National Guard. In accomplishing this stroke, Major Howard also succeeded in having D Company of his battalion transferred to the 103d Machine Gun Battalion, leaving him in command of the two Hartford companies which now became the divisional reserve, equipped with motor transportation and held out of the line during the greater part of the campaigns which followed.
ONE OF THE PIGS SLEPT WITH DUGGAN
Final preparation for the first trip to the trenches which the men were told would take place early in February consisted in training the mules issued to the Company to haul the gun-carts, ammunition carts, caissons, rolling kitchens and escort wagons, inspections without number, trips to the machine gun range where all the guns in the division were assembled for practice, and the policing ever necessary before an organization could leave a camp it had occupied.
Pay and mail brought more joy to the camp on January 23 and the following nights were spent visiting the nearby cafés or, when opportunity offered, taking the quaint train which conveyed the men to and from Neufchateau at a cost of two cents per trip in real money. The fate of five small pigs dropped from a train in the vicinity of camp was promptly decided by Minor and Parmalee, who captured them and after a night spent by most of the Company trying to keep the porkers in captivity, they were killed and served at mess the following day.
Trips to the machine gun range laid out by one member of the Company in coöperation with a man from Battalion headquarters near Prez sous Lafauche, southwest of Neufchateau, were made by French motor truck. There the men had their first demonstration of barrage fire over the heads of friendly troops, were addressed for the first time by Major General Clarence R. Edwards, commander of the Division, and Colonel Parker, famed throughout the army for his work in connection with the development of the machine gun and at that time the energetic commander of the 102d Infantry Regiment, who, in his direct manner described vividly the part machine guns were intended to play in the war.
Interspersed with machine gun work was instruction in grenade throwing and the final test of the gas masks when the entire Company passed through a chamber filled with chlorine gas.
Farewell was bade the camp which had served as a home for more than three months on February 7, when after a final and extensive policing, the Company slung packs and began the hike over the hill leading to Chatenois and eventually to the trenches.